


Unexpected

by PrincelyGoro



Category: Splatoon
Genre: I changed the rating, M/M, T for language cause Aloha is gonna say the bad swear words, this is incredibly self indulgent oops, you will be suprised by army's hobbies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-09-06 00:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16821790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincelyGoro/pseuds/PrincelyGoro
Summary: Aloha stumbled upon one of Army's manuals and decided to give it a read, leading to him discovering a lot of new things about Army.





	1. Chance or Fate?

**Author's Note:**

> this is so self indulgent god i.. can't put it into words

Everybody knew Army's obsessive habit about noting all and everything down in his manuals: Strategies, tactics, the enemies' possible patterns and plans as well as how to counter such, but today, Aloha discovered that that was not all that Army wrote down in his journals.

Maybe the orange inkling accidentally wrote it in one of his manuals instead of a personal notebook of sorts. Or maybe Army wrote literally everything down in his manuals, with no regards if others might read it, in case he loses it by accident.

Which is exactly what happened.

Aloha was strolling through Inkopolis, visiting several shops and hanging out with his team. The moon had started to rise, so Aloha thought it would be wise to slowly go back home.

On his way to the train station he saw a notebook on the ground and picked it up, curiousity getting the better of him. It did seem oddly familiar, after all.

And it definetly was familiar, as it was one of Army's manuals, as the text on the cover suggests. Aloha would see Army the next day, there being a meeting among the S4 and all, so he decided to take it with him and return it the following day.

Aloha arrived at the train station and entered the train that would drive him home. He sat down on one of the many free seats. It was mostly empty, the only other people on the train were either glued to their phones or fast asleep already, having surely exhausted themselves by playing many matches today.

The pink inkling took out his phone, intending to scroll through some social media, but found his phone to be dead with no battery left. Annoyed, Aloha chugged it back into his pocket and stared outside the window. A sight he has seen a thousand times, for sure, which he quickly grew bored of as well.

His gaze fell on Army's manual.

"Better than nothing, probably boring too though, huh..." Aloha sighed and opened the first page. He expected some kind of overview or table of contents or anything that would indicate any kind of order but the first page was already a mess: An explosion of notes of varying colors on completly different things. Army did not stay in the lines at all and had scribbled randomly on the page in different sizes as well. Some notes ended in several exclamation or question marks, some were so heavily underlined that it most likely went through the page. There were a handful of sentences crossed out so messily that you could still read some of it, not that it made much sense though.

Aloha was suprised, to say the least. Army always presented himself as orderly and disciplined, even if he is a bit oblivious and naive, but that he would be so chaotic seemed like the pink inkling had just discovered the other S4 member's biggest secret.

Curious of what revelations the other pages held, Aloha turned the page. The orange inkling's notes still had no order or pattern, just random tips and observations written down when experienced immediately.

Aloha found most pages to be so and almost closed the manual, having no hopes of finding more surprises, until he found a page with the S4 members' names written on it. It was the only page so far that seemed somewhat orderly, even if messily written.

The first person was Mask.

"Not sure if sadistic or weird yet. Keep safe distance. Condescending? Regularly text him to remind him that he should sleep a normal amount instead of playing videogames throughout his nights."

The notes were written on different days which explains his sudden switch of being weirded out to concern. This led Aloha to believe this must be one of Army's first manuals and that he had written in it for quite a long while.

The next was Skull.

"Mysterious. Aloof or serious? Sweettooth -> Aloof? Why the mask? Does he not brush his teeth regularly despite his unreasonably high consumation of sweets? Remind him to brush teeth. Has good teeth but a scar on his lips-> Origin unknown. Might be too personal. Ask in private if opportunity arises. Respect his boundaries if he doesn't want to talk about it."

Aloha felt like he was imposing on Skull's privacy instead of Army's now but ignored the short pang of guilt. The pink inkling noticed that Army, albeit not showing it in a too friendly way most of the time, was quite concerned with the S4. Well, Skull and Mask at least. Aloha kept on reading as that thought passed through his head, curious about Army's thoughts on him.

"Aloha."

He blinked, looked again at it.

"Aloha."

That's it. Everything except his name was crossed out with a pitchblack marker that, after turning a couple pages, went through at least eight pages. Whatever was written there even Army did not want to see himself or anyone else under any circumstances, it seemed.

"Maybe it's something embarassing?" Aloha thought with a false grin on his face. He knew he was the least "ambitious" one out of the bunch and that Army was definetly annoyed with that. He wished Army would have at least written down a note or two about caring for Aloha, just like he did for the rest of the S4.

A shame, really, since Aloha had a crush on Army.

The pink inkling deflated and now just halfheartedly flipped through the pages, the already messy notes becoming blurry and unreadable due to his lack of focus.

Until Aloha found another curious page. It was the first one that was written cleanly, the effort put into making it presentable most definetly visible. But even more suprising is what it said:

_" **First love**_

_Your eyes are the sky_  
_Filled with sparkling stars._  
_Denying your beauty is a lie_  
_As unreasonable as bloody wars._

 _I am lost in those eyes,_  
_Greater than earth's very treasures._  
_My heart rises to new heights,_  
_Longing your unclear pleasures._

 _My dream, so far and wide,_  
_With you as the brightest light,_  
_To be by your very side-_  
_But, alas, my heavy heart's plight._

 _My dream, so near and clear,_  
_To reach out to your radiant soul-_  
_But I am consumed by my fear_  
_That my unworthiest touch might make you foul."_

It was a poem. Army wrote a poem. A poem, of all things! If this were someone else, Aloha would have snickered or laughed at something so embarassing, but the pink inkling made no sound. His cheeks flushed and his heart hammered so fast it might burst.

Aloha, with a heavy heart, closed the manual and pressed his head against the window, closing his eyes in the process, in an attempt to calm himself.

Was this Army's first poem? Maybe, maybe not. Aloha did not know anything at all about poems. But what he was sure of was that this was a love poem. But who was Army thinking of while writing it?

Surely not Aloha, right?

The pink inkling tried to calm down, to get his mind distracted from this emotional punch in the face. He heard the traindriver announce his stop, so Aloha quickly got up. He carefully placed Army's manual in his bag and made his way to the door. The train stopped and Aloha stepped out into the frest night air.

It helped clear his head a bit while walking home, but Aloha can not simply forget he ever read that. Unwillingly, hope started to spread in his heart: Hope that Aloha might be that radiant star in Army's poem.

Against his better judgement, Aloha decided to continue reading the manual tonight, already thinking of possible apologies to Army for doing so tomorrow.


	2. Incomplete

"Maybe I should just stay home tomorrow, say I overslept? No, everyone's gonna give me shit for it. Should I say I'm sick? No, someone might come to check up on me..."

Aloha was talking to himself, thinking of a good excuse to not appear to tomorrow's meeting with the S4, as he paced around his room.

"How should I even explain this? 'Hey Army, light of my life, the last inkling I thought I'd fall for despite your adorable laugh and commendable determination and precious smile, I accidentally found your manual. Thought I'd give it back, ya know. Also I read partly through it and found a poem, sorry!' Urgh!"

Aloha struggled to keep a calm head or just be relaxed, unable to face it when it comes like he usually does. His confidence perished with barely any trace left, instead he was guilt-ridden and helpless in the fangs of fear.

"This isn't like me." he admitted to himself and let his head hang low. "Why am I such a mess right now...?"

He knew why. Admitting it hurt.

Aloha glanced to his left. Army's manual lay on top of his desk but the pink inkling had not looked into it since arriving home. It made him uneasy, having placed it so openly and invitingly on his table.

"Shit..." he cursed, unable to calm down. Aloha kept his eyes trained on the manual. A couple seconds passed, the pink inkling just staring at the book with an increasingly distressed expression, until he shouts "Fuck it" and sits down in his chair by his table.

With shaking hands, he opened the manual again on the first page. It was still the same first, scribbly, messy page but instead of suprise it invoked familiarity now, to Aloha's horror. The feeling was too soft, too warm, too-

It was wrong. Aloha was not supposed to even look into Army's manual. Guilt rose its ugly head again, the pink inkling anxiously tugging at his earring as he felt overwhelmed yet again.

"God, I'm being so stupid..." Aloha groaned out, annoyed at his indecision as to what to do.

"It will be okay, Army just... can't find out." Aloha said to himself.

_"About this and, well..."_ Even in his thoughts, Aloha did not say it, not daring to.

Carefully, the pink inkling flipped through the pages until he arrived at the poem. Restraining himself from rereading it again, to save himself from even more achings of his heart, he determinedly turned to the next page.

There were messy notes and quickly written notices all over the page, just like all the other pages.

_Just like the neatly written page with the poem did not exist at all._

Ignoring how his hands were shaking and his breath was quickening, all against his will, he kept on turning the pages, looking over all of Army's notes. Aloha became increasingly familiar with the orange inkling's handwriting, becoming able to decipher it more and more as he kept on reading.

Time was passing, Aloha's anxiety having faded into a silent reminder at the back of his head. He was reading Army's manual, that had only contained turf war and ranked mode specific content since the poem, like a normal book. Still, it was unusual, since Aloha has maybe touched and actually read a book many years ago, a time he barely remembers at this point.

A book about tactics would usually bore him, no doubt, but this was different. It was something Army wrote, not some no-face with a fancy name. This was Army's manual, in which he put great effort into, despite the bad handwriting.

"I should tell him and apologize." Aloha said as his eyes wandered over the next sentence, something about effective strategies to trick snipers and chargers.

"It's bad, but I've read this much already. Won't matter if I read the rest..." Aloha tried to justify his current actions to himself, or try to revert back to his layed back persona, but the guilt was still biting at him, even if lesser than before.

It was a foolish, naive thought.

Aloha had read through a quarter of the manual, suprisingly quickly in his case, and sighed. He turned his head, the clock on the wall to his right showing it was midnight.

The meeting with the S4 was going to be pretty early, seven am to be exact, since Skull would be out of town from nine am onwards till next week.

Would Aloha manage to read the rest of the manual and get enough sleep to not look like a total zombie in the morning? Probably not. He carried on anyway.

While reading the various pages of the manual, Aloha has noticed how in some pages Army had done what looked like simple writing exercises with his neat handwriting. Random words or everyday things like a shopping list or food and drinks he would order in restaurants were among those, having been written messily first and then neatly right next to them.

It made Aloha's heart flutter as much as it made it ache. He had his suspicions on another poem coming up and completly destroying the kind-of calm he had archieved in his trying times, starting his panic anew.

"It can't be." he kept on repeating to himself, attempting to convince himself of the most likely scenario not happening.

And then it happened.

Aloha turned a page. He caught a glimpse of it, saw how not literally every tiny space was filled with those scribbly notes. He slowly opened the page, letting it wash over him when he revealed to himself the second poem.

Aloha stared blankly at it, skimming through the written art that was displayed before him but his head was buzzing too much to comprehend anything or notice the oddities of it properly.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened them again and began reading:

_In the darkest hour and deepest night_  
_A need for saving guidance is ever present_  
_And as I search for salvation from this torment_  
_You bless me with your light._

_Do not forsake me in the wicked shadows_  
_For my love wish's to be as bright as your light_  
_But your radiance blinds me like sunlight_  
_That leaves me all alone on the darkened meadow._

_Standing here, consumed by my loneliness,_  
_I watch you from the distance, eternally afar_  
_And I shed my many tears, your content my only comfort._

~~_My sorrow comes from my own weakness_ ~~  
~~_My fear, my paranoia, my despair, I endure_ ~~  
~~_All that breaks me down, I'm outnumbered_ ~~

Aloha noticed immediately, the poem had no title and seemed unfinished or scrapped. At least the last stanza was scrapped, seeing as Army tried to cross it out. The pink inkling was still able to read it though.

This one was... different from the other. This one seemed sad, like a bunch of emotions Army could barely put into words jumbled into a poem with a very forced form.

This might have been Army's first poem instead? Or maybe Army tried different forms and ended up with this result? Aloha was not sure.

But what he was sure of was that it invoked a feeling of dissatisfaction... or malcontent. Either way, it upset him. The poem started nicely, with a positive image of his loved one, but the way it continued and ended it made them seem unattainable to Army. It showed that the orange inkling was scared- A word Aloha would have never described Army with.

The pink inkling was unsure what to make of this. He felt confusion and was restless as well. Army seemed to suffer, but it was not like Aloha could do anything about it without revealing that he snooped around in his manual.

He sighed and stood up from his chair. His thoughts became too occupied with the poem to possibly continue reading through more of Army's manual. There were still so many pages left though...

"It won't hurt if I give it back a day later... Right?" Aloha argued with himself. It was convincing enough in his state of worry and exhaustion, so he decided to keep it the next day and finish reading then.

Aloha decided to just go and sleep now. He threw himself onto his bed, not even changing out of his clothes, and fell asleep after a couple seconds.

His last thoughts were just a jumbled mess, clearly overwhelmed by all that he has found out and read today, as well as a reminder to pull himself together and not expose himself to Army the following day.

It was truly questionable how in the world Aloha was _not_ supposed to mess up during the meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not too happy with this chapter, also because the poem sucks expect maybe the first stanza? I dislike sonetts but I thought it fitting to use such a restricting form for one of Army's first poems. One would prolly look up poems and their forms and try to go with that before going for their own style, at least that was the case with me.  
> I'm a lot more excited for the next chapter(s), since, obviously, Army makes his first appearance!!  
> That update might take a bit longer tho, depending on how much time I can scrape together next week;;


	3. Dense

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait;;; School and private matters kept me busy and unable to finish this sooner :( This chapter is also longer than the others, hope this makes it up a bit? Also, I really don't know how to write Mask's weird speech pattern, oops. And I swear Aloha's gonna be in-character, as in confident and flirty, at some point... Not this chapter though.

Aloha slept for six hours, which should have been enough, seeing as with how little sleep after partying throughout a whole entire night he can still function relatively well, but he felt like a zombie. He woke up feeling like he was carrying the world's burden alone on his shoulders.

Well, he was carrying the burden of his tiny little world, at least.

Aloha overslept as well, having forgotten to set his alarm. One look at his phone, that was continually buzzing with notifications, was enough to tell him he was late.

The pink inkling took a look at his phone: It read 6.55 am. He was about to be late and whoever kept on texting him knew it perfectly well. Aloha unlocked his phone and looked at his notifications.

_30 new messages from Army ♡_

He felt his face heat up immediately. Sometimes he just completly forgot about having saved Army's contact like that, but in his current situation, it really did him no good.

If Army ever saw this Aloha would be a dead inkling.

He opened his messaging app and looked at Army's texts. They started at 6.50 am.

 _Aloha! Where are you? It's almost time for the meeting!_ -6.50  
_Did you not set your alarm?_ -6.50  
_Don't tell me you went partying even though we have a meeting!_ -6.51  
_Aloha!!! Wake up!!!_ -6.54

Those were only some, but enough to see that Army was pissed off and Aloha was in trouble.

Despite that, Aloha said outloud, with all his flair and dramatics: "Why don't you write me a poem instead?".

He immediately regretted those words. Startled, he dropped his phone.

Nobody heard it except him, of course, but Aloha was still embarassed and felt his face flush even worse than before. Yeah, the whole 'do not accidentally expose yourself' thing was definetly not going to work out.

He quickly picked up his phone from the ground and texted back:

 _m on my way. sry kinda passed out ystrdy, c u l8r_ -6.56

With that text sent, Aloha put his phone in his pocket and grabbed his visor. He ran out of his house and made haste towards their meeting place. It was nearby, thank cod, so he did not have to take the train like usually.

It was a tiny cafe, hidden in a small alley. The street had quite recently started to flourish with new shops and breathed life into the alley. It was so early in the morning but many cephalopods were up and running already, setting up shop or already out to shop.

Aloha ran through the alley- Why even do that when he was going to be late anyway?- and suddenly halted. He was right in front of the cafe now. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Army fussing, his expression irritated and annoyed. Aloha was sure he was in hot water and braced himself for the incoming lecture before pushing open the door and going in.

"Hey, sorry for being late. I forgot to set my alarm." Aloha said as he approached the table, Army's critical and judging glare already boring into him. Mask and Skull greeted him back with a shrug.

Aloha sat down next to Army- Great, this _totally_ did not make his situation worse. Army gave him another glare before, quite unexpectedly, his gaze softened.

"At least it was only five minutes and not half an hour like last time." Army said with an emotion present in his voice that Aloha could not judge or identify. It happened in the rare ocassions that the pink inkling was on time, and every time Aloha did not know how to respond properly.

"Y-yeah, I guess." is all he said.

"Whyyyy are we having this meeeting again?" Mask asked, already bored. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

"As the S4, it is mandatory." Army replied, having said this answer often enough that he could not even muster to make himself sound annoyed, the reply having become automated at this point.

Army directed his gaze to the inkling sitting next to Mask and asked: "Skull, for how long exactly will you be gone?"

"Exactly a week." He replied simply. Army nodded in response.

"Have you heard? Goggles and Rider have been spending a lot of time togetheeeer." Mask suddenly said, gaining everyone's attention.

"What, you think they're a couple?" Aloha chuckled. He bit down the little bit of envy rising.

"They probably aaare."

"Goggles hangs out with anyone he can find though." Skull replied. Mask looked a bit suprised, but responded nonetheless:

"This seems differeeent..."

Aloha grew bored of the conversation, even if he loved to gossip, and looked over to Army instead. Army had a complicated expression on his face, clearly feeling uncomfortable about talking about other people's affairs. The orange inkling was never a gossiper, too disciplined and proper for that.

"This isn't any of our business." He finally cut in with absolution in his voice. Mask and Skull ceased their discussion.

"Anything else?" Skull asked as he now watched the clock. It was 7.15 am.

"Actually..." Army began but paused. He did not seem convinced or confident about whatever he was going to say.

Aloha's stomach suddenly churned.

"I lost one of my manuals."

_Oh no._

"It has both old and new things written in it. I often used it for things outside of, well, instructions and tips as well."

_No, no, no-_

"If any of you see it somewhere, please bring it to me. If it hasn't already ended up in the trash, of course. I... I really need it. It's urgent."

_Fuck._

Aloha knew his face had taken on a pink shade and he was perfectly aware he could not stop the panicked look on his face but he really could not help it. He distantly noticed Mask looking over to him with suprise and amusement.

"Sure." Skull answered. It seemed like he was going to add something but he looked over to Aloha and stopped, seeing the pink inkling's expression.

It clicked for Mask and Skull. They knew Aloha had the manual.

"Mask? Did you hear me?" Army asked, desperation seeping into his voice.

"Yeah, I diiid. But, uh..." Mask was at a loss for words, for once. He thought about what he should say.

"What exactly did you write down in that manual? Y'know, that stuff that's not usually in your manuaaals?"

Army's face turned orange. He was embarassed, stuttering jumbled sentences and incoherrent words. Mask and Skull just waited for the orange inkling to calm down.

"I, well... It's... For one, I write down things I might end up forgetting in it. But not mainly, I have a different manual- Uh, notebook, for that. In the one I lost though..." Army paused, thinking of a way to be discreet but also reveal enough information.

"I write down very... personal things in it from time to time. It's embarassing..." Army choked out, his voice meek and volume low. Mask and Skull still understood him and decided not to push him.

"I've written something in it recently as well, two days ago to be exact..." Army added, his face still flourishing in an orange tone.

"We'll tell you if we find iiit. But..." Mask paused, unsure of what to say. Snitching on Aloha was not exactly what he wanted to do and there seemed to be more to the story than what he knew right now. Mask just directed his head towards Aloha as a sign. Army, having noticed this, turned around and-

"Cod, Aloha, are you alright?!"

The pink inkling's face was completly pink. His expression- Honestly, a clear admission of guilt for anyone that wasn't dense as a _ or in pure denial- was a wreck. He looked painfully nervous and panicked, and most definetly like he was going to vomit.

Aloha felt the eyes of the others boring into him. He heard Army say something- Hell if he knew what- to him. He knew he had to come up with something, anything, and fast.

The pink inkling suddenly stood up, his hands supporting him on the table, and his head lowered. He felt sweat starting to roll down his forehead. This was bad. Really bad.

"I... I haven't really felt too good today. I'm kind of, uh, I'm kinda sick. I...I really gotta go. Sorry!" With a nervous chuckle- As if this would make him seem any less suspicious- and that, quite frankly shitty excuse, Aloha bolted out of the cafe as fast he could.

It was a miracle the pink inkling did not accidentally bump into someone. When he reached his house, he was heaving, feeling like he was going to suffocate right then and there, like his head was going to explode, like his heart was going to burst. Like he was actually going to vomit.

Aloha, with shaking hands, took out his keys and unlocked the door. He flinged himself through it and almost fell face first on the ground. The pink inkling kicked the door close with his foot and let himself rest against the wall.

With heavy breaths, he slowly slid down until he was sitting on the ground.

"What the hell was I thinking?" He said outloud. Obviously, he was not thinking.

He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. It did not stop, notifications quickly piling up. Aloha ignored it, seeing as they were most likely from either Mask, Skull or, well, Army.

Aloha held onto the wall for dear life and slowly got up again. His legs were shaking but he ignored it, slowly detaching himself from the wall and making his way towards his room.

The pink inkling entered and sat down on the chair of his desk. Not his best idea, since Army's manual was directly in his view now.

_"I've written something in it recently as well, two days ago to be exact..."_

Aloha screamed internally. The temptation was there but he felt bad, so incredibly horrible, for invading Army's privacy like that. * _Again._ * The orange inkling was so upset and panicked during the meeting about the disappearance of the manual.

No doubt Aloha would literally combust when reading another poem anyway.

The pink inkling nervously tugged at his earring while contemplating whether he would like to dig his own grave deeper or not.

But, yet again, his "fuck it all" attitude made this decision somewhat easier to make.

Aloha opened the manual and skipped to the last page. It was blank, to the inkling's suprise, but seeing as Army was still using it recently, it should not be so out of place.

The pink inkling flipped the pages, seeing blank page after blank page, until he finally found the most recent page.

His breath came to an abrupt stop. He had butterflies in his stomach already. With a long intake of breath, he took a look at the poem presented before him, written as neat as the others:

_Desire_

_My hand reaches out,_  
_Yours is out of reach._  
_My heart pounds for you,_  
_Yours for anyone but me._

_I get lost in your eyes,_  
_You in your own._  
_I try to tell you,_  
_But you won't tell me a thing._

_Anything at all,_  
_A touch of your hand,_  
_A beat of your heart,_  
_A word from your lips._

_Everything is all I want:_  
_Your hand, touching mine!_  
_Your heart, beating with mine!_  
_Your lips, moving with mine!_

_But you are not mine._

Aloha was stunned. The whirlwind of emotions he was experiencing- He could not put it into words. His hands were shaking, his heart was beating fast and his lips were quivering, trying to make a sound, take a breath, _anything at all_.

The pink inkling could not deny it, he fell even more for Army, progressivly, from poem to poem. He had no idea about the written art but he knew when something was so beautiful, so stunning, so wonderful that it invokes feelings such as those Aloha was feeling right this moment.

But aside from that, he knew Army was pained, convinced that whoever he loved, whoever he devoted his poems to, did not return those feelings. It made Aloha's blood boil, how someone could not love Army, but calmed himself.

"I'll give it back to him." he made up his mind. He refused to look for the other poems in the manual, not wanting to be a disrespectful prick any further.

With a sigh, Aloha was about to close the manual, but suddenly halted. He remembered all those blank pages. An idea started to form in his mind, one that he hoped dearly he would not regret.

He opened the next page instead, predictably blank, and took out a pen, getting down to writing what has to be written, with the time of day and his phone long forgotten.


End file.
